Six Degrees of April 15, 2016

This week, I kinda looked at 7 sites, but the first 2 were intertwined and the 4th and 5th covered a common topic, in any case, it was an interesting journey.  

Six Degrees

The six (seven) sites I visited this week are:

1. Contains Moderate Peril
2. Gaming Conversations
3. A Green Mushroom
4. MMO Gypsy
5. Mersault
6. Tales of the Aggronaut
7. Gamer Girl Confessions

Contains Moderate Peril

I guess I knew this already, but sadly Contains Moderate Peril no longer exists as a blog or a podcast even though I still have it on my blogroll…guess it’s time to update.

Gaming Conversations – Beyond Bossfights Episode 25 – Closing Up Shop

Braxwolf at Beyond Bossfights interviews Brian and Roger from Contains Moderate Peril and Burton and Scrooge podcasts (hence the weirdness that the first 2 sites I visited were related).  To add to the strangeness, I had just listened to Beyond Bossfights yesterday on my lunch break.  I enjoy how Braxwolf conducts an interview and this was no different, except I didn’t like the title…calling your  episode “Closing Up Shop” made me worried that I was losing another podcast I regularly listen to.  Instead the episode covered Burton and Scrooge and how they were shutting down that endeavor.  I found the interview educational and enlightening as I think anyone in the blogging or podcasting “sphere” would as it covered interesting issues related to winding down a project when other priorities start to take precedence.  I certainly hope to hear from Brian and Roger again in the future and am relieved to realize that the podcast title did not mean Braxwolf was calling it quits.

A Green Mushroom – Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Review

Void over at A Green Mushroom has a nice article discussing the most recent season of Star Wars Rebels.  In Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Review, Void praises the second season, particularly when the episode focus on the main story lines of the Jedi and the Rebels.  Unfortunate for me, I haven’t continued watching since the first season.  While I enjoyed the show, I let other series take precedence this past season.  With Void’s endorsement, I will have to find the time to give this a binge watch sometime before the third season starts up.

MMO Gypsy – Dual Wielding LFG Edition: Social Engineering and the Freedom of Choice

Syl put together an interesting post that is tied to Mersault’s post and others from Wolfyeyes and Ironweakness over on their blogs.  These four took a topic – group play in MMOs and what game developers do to foster community in their games – and each posted their thoughts on the subject.  It’s a pretty cool idea and I think they cover the issue well.  One big issue that Syl brings up is the forcing of “cooperation” through requirements that games place on players – things like having a healer/tank/dps trinity, requiring raiding for high level gear, and gating content so that players are prevented from progress unless they group.  Why a game penalize grouping is beyond me when you are talking about an MMO, but the post points out multiple instances of developer choices in this area.  Syl urges rewards for cooperative behavior that would build community rather than simply promote temporary grouping.  One key point that I think Syl makes is “no one likes to pay for a game that’s denying them access to either content or one another as soon as they can’t party up or meet exact requirements.”  I think this sums up some of the downfall of the current crop of MMOs and I think Syl makes some good points.

Mersault – Dual Wielding LFG edition: fostering communities

Mersault contributes to the discussion going on and makes some good points as well.  One thing I completely agree with from this post is the strength of the EVE Online community.  There is so much to Eve that as Mersault mentions, “it’s almost like a parallel universe.”  I think Eve makes community a requirement in a good way – sure you can pretty much do anything on your own, but getting into a fleet and taking down stations or jumping from a titan bridge really make the grouping a positive and enjoyable experience.  Certainly, there is much down time in Eve that you can fill with solo activity, but the group play is what really makes this game something that makes real world headlines (I don’t hear much about how the 10 man raid in WoW did such and such in Forbes).  In any case, I think Mersault puts together a good analysis of where various games fall in terms of grouping and then the post goes into possible ways of improving things.  Making the game have ties to the real world is a great way to encourage community, and not just having an auction house on my phone.  This is a well put together article and between this and Syl’s. I want to read the other 2 blogs covering the topic.

Tales of the Aggronaut – Rising Light

Belghast over at Tales of the Aggronaut talks about raiding and gearing up in Destiny.  Now Destiny is a game I haven’t tried yet, but it looks (from everything I’ve seen from Belghast) to be pretty fun.  The main thing that I think holds me back is platform separation – I have a PC and a PS4 and I can pretty much guarantee that if I get the game for one platform, I’ll find that all my friends are on the other.  That, and my PC is maxed out on disk space right now.  Anyway, Belghast makes a case for raiding often to build up gear as he’s jumped up to 318 in the past couple of months.  It seems, from the post, like the Prison of Elders arena and the King’s Fall content is pretty enjoyable and something you could easily spend a lot of game time playing.

Gamer Girl Confessions – WildStar’s Tutorial Island

Chestnut posts about Wildstar, and something that I didn’t know.  Apparently there is a new set of tutorials that are being tested on the PTR right now, and in WildStar’s Tutorial Island, she talks about her experiences there.  I’m a little sad since if you participated in the testing, you get a hoverboard…and of course I just found out and its too late.  She loved the hoverboard but thought some of the actual tutorial could use some work…there was no comment about double jump and telegraphs were barely covered, but it sounds like it would be an improvement from the current tutorial.  Actually, having just went through things, I’d say anything would be an improvement – I don’t recall much about telegraphs, jumping, or dodging in the current tutorial either (perhaps I had the tutorial turned off? Or maybe I’m still in it, only having just ventured down to Nexus).  With the layoff announcements a month or two ago, I’m glad to see that there is still work being done on the game and hope they keep improving things as I am enjoying it.

Roundup

So there’s my Six/Seven Degrees for the week.  Podcasts, cartoons, Destiny, Wildstar, and gaming communities really make for a diverse set of topics this week.  I’m sad about Contains Moderate Peril but as explained in Gaming Conversations, I can understand the reasons.  The shared posting about gaming communities is a great idea and I’m gonna have to keep my eyes open for other topics these guys banter about.  And as usual, I love reading about people’s experience in the games they enjoy and the shows they watch.  In all, it was a good week.

Morning Ramble 2.64